Racing Welfare staff volunteer their time and skills to help local communities on Racing Together Community Day
Racing Welfare staff have volunteered their time and skills as part of Racing Together Community Day, an annual event initiated to collectively inspire and showcase the racing industry working in its local communities and showing that it’s fun to give back alongside colleagues.
Racing Together represents and champions British Racing’s community engagement and education activity and is a growing partnership of charities, which includes Racing Welfare and other organisations, who work across the sport to benefit others.
This years’ Racing Together Community Day, which took place on Wednesday 8th May, saw Racing Welfare staff volunteer more than 20 hours of their time to help others.
Staff from the welfare and community teams gave up their time to support equine charities Riding for the Disabled (RDA) and Stable Life, with tasks such as grooming, sweeping, and ragwort pulling to name but a few.
Staff also teamed up with Go Racing in Yorkshire to volunteer their time working in the gardens at The Croft, part of Camphill Village Trust, a charity supporting adults with complex needs.
Hetta Harris, Racing Welfare’s Outreach and Engagement Officer (Thoroughbred Stud and Breeding), volunteered at Lambourn RDA. Hetta said: “Volunteering at the Lambourn branch of the RDA was very rewarding and opened-up my eyes to the broad spectrum of people who volunteer and come to ride on a weekly basis. Hearing first-hand how the interaction with the horses and ponies has helped the beneficiaries was very moving and I would love to volunteer more time in the future.”
Also taking place on Racing Together Community Day was a special coffee morning hosted by the Newmarket welfare team. A very popular coffee morning in Newmarket, Racing Welfare staff were joined by a number of local organisations including Barclays Bank, Rossdales Vets, The Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, The Samaritans and local Police Officers to help celebrate the special day. Racing Welfare coffee mornings are a great way of bringing people together from the racing industry for conversation, companionship and support.
